#ItsATrackThing: 20 Things Only Trackletes Truly Understand

lanes at Franklin High School track

lanes at Franklin High School track (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

20. The worse nightmares contain thoughts about getting shin splints or stress fractures.

19. Trackletes know you don’t jump hurdles, you hurdle hurdles. You don’t throw the shot put, you put the shot. You don’t put spikes on your shoes, you put spikes on your spikes.

18. Fartlek-ing in public is completely normal and healthy.

17. “PRed” can legally be used as a verb (in the track world).

16. Dead last finish is greater than DNF.

15.  Middle distance events are like the middle child, awkward.

14. Up, on deck, and in the hole make complete sense to a tracklete.

13. Trackletes don’t waste time Facebook stalking like normal people. They study people on milesplit, tfrrs, direct athletics, etc.

12. That awkward moment when someone asks a tracklete what he or she plays.

11. Trackletes can convert the saying hop-skip-jump into an action.

10. It doesn’t matter if it’s freezing cold at a meet or blazing hot–trackletes warm up with warm ups on (said the coach).

9. Taking too much time away from track can lead to running withdrawals or restless leg syndrome.

8.  The Fosbury Flop is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

7. Telling a tracklete it’s outdoor season is like telling him or her that he or she won the lottery.

6.  The feeling (or lack of feeling) in a tracklete’s legs after he or she gave everything in a race.

5. Spring break really just means no class and more practice.

4. TRACK!!!!!!!!!!! = You are about to get trampled.

3. Hearing a baton hit the ground is WAY worse than nails on a chalkboard.

2. Ice baths feel incredibly amazing, tomorrow.

1. Track tans are the best tans.

What else makes you say #ItsATrackThing? Tweet about it and see what everyone else is saying!

The Next Level

In 2011 one of my friends who played soccer at the same university as me tweeted about her #soccerprobs. After clicking on her hashtag, I came across hundreds of hilarious tweets about, well, soccer problems. Ironically, I was icing my knee (post ACL reconstruction) after track practice when I decided to search for a “track probs” twitter handle. I was disappointed when I was unable to find what I was looking for, so I decided to start my own! Creating @track_probs was therapeutic for me. I was able to vent about all of the silly troubles of being a student athlete and also read about others going through the same things.

2 years, roughly 1800 tweets, and more than 37,000 followers later, @track_probs has exceeded my expectations. I am ready to move the twitter handle to the next level with this blog. I may tweet about annoying issues trackletes face (they are SPIKES not CLEATS #trackprobs), but I want to show the world that we are not just a group of complainers. This blog is designed to showcase, inspire, and contribute to the incredible (and highly underrated #trackprobs) sport of track and field.